


in the eye of the hurricane there is quiet (for just a moment)

by whisperedwords



Series: an idiot's guide to maybe-sorta-kinda falling in love with your fellow outcast superheroes [1]
Category: Stargirl (TV 2020)
Genre: Anger, Angst, Canon Compliant, Multi, Not Beta Read, Pre-Relationship, Scene Touch-Up, all clownery is my own, yes i think the four of them are in love. what about it.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25121671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whisperedwords/pseuds/whisperedwords
Summary: There’s another beat of silence. Rick shifts on his feet, fingers curling into fists at his sides, and Yolanda notices. (Of course she notices—she thinks she’s about to go just as feral.) “Pat,” she says, pushing for some kind of answer,anyanswer, any word on Courtney atallbecause there’s been an awful lot of not talking about how exactly their friend is doing right now.
Relationships: Beth Chapel/Yolanda Montez/Rick Tyler/Courtney Whitmore
Series: an idiot's guide to maybe-sorta-kinda falling in love with your fellow outcast superheroes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1819771
Comments: 8
Kudos: 53





	in the eye of the hurricane there is quiet (for just a moment)

**Author's Note:**

> we're not talking about the title being hamilton.  
> also, this is crazy unbeta'd and really isn't anything new, this is just my first foray into this ot4 and i want to make you all love them together with me. please

It’s Rick’s idea—the car crash, that is.

The moment _Courtney is down_ filters through Yolanda’s phone, it feels like the air has been sucked out of the room. All bets are off. Yolanda feels her fingertips digging into the skin of her arm, through her sweater like it’s not even there when Pat tells them, and it scares her, how numb she gets all of a sudden. She vaguely hears Beth’s nervous chattering from somewhere outside herself, and can feel Rick’s brooding silence get even _darker_ as the seconds tick on, but she’s not sure what to do. Not sure what to think, what to _feel_ , because oh my god that’s Courtney. That’s Court, the one who brought her this whole new life that’s going to change everything, and if she dies—

“Car crash,” Rick says sharply, breaking his own silence and drawing the team’s attention to him. The thoughts bouncing off the walls of Yolanda’s head have paused to look at him, too: she leans a little towards him, a quiet _thank you_ gesture that neither of them would be able to verbalize otherwise.

“What?” Pat’s voice cracks. It would be funnier if it weren’t, you know. What it is.

“You said Court’s mom doesn’t know, right? That she’s Stargirl?” _And also that we’re the JSA_ is kind of implied, but it doesn’t really matter, anyway. Not right now. Pat hums affirmatively in response to the question, and Rick bites his lip before speaking again. (Beth steps a little closer, too—probably to get closer to the phone Yolanda is holding, but it seems more likely that she’s doing exactly what Yolanda is: falling into orbit.)

“It’s dark out tonight, and it’s homecoming weekend. It wouldn’t be too unusual if...” He pauses, gritting his teeth as if the words are hurting him physically. “If Courtney was in the hospital because of something like that.”

After a beat or two of silence, Pat speaks up again. “Barb’ll _kill_ me."

“But you can’t keep this from her, Mr. Dugan!” Beth exclaims, her voice sounding like bells even when she’s upset. And, well, Beth _is_ upset—she’s more upset than Yolanda thinks they’ve ever seen her in her life, and both her and Rick were at the table when Beth’s mom called to tell her she didn’t want Bolognese for dinner last month. That was before all this, of course—before they joined together as a team, before anyone knew how to look at her beyond what Henry _fucking_ King turned her into. It’s funny, in a way; Yolanda doesn’t think she’d ever really spoken to either person flanking her at the moment, and here she is now, feeling every bit of their emotions because somehow they’ve become hers, too.

There’s another beat of silence. Rick shifts on his feet, fingers curling into fists at his sides, and Yolanda notices. (Of course she notices—she thinks she’s about to go just as feral.) “Pat,” she says, pushing for some kind of answer, _any_ answer, any word on Courtney at _all_ because there’s been an awful lot of not talking about how exactly their friend is doing right now.

Their friend. Yolanda’s best friend. Her only friend, up until maybe a week ago? Her heart has been hammering in her chest for the past fifteen minutes listening to Pat tell them this, that she was fighting with Cindy and that she wasn’t responsive when he tried getting her to wake up—

“Okay.” Pat’s voice is resigned on the other end of the phone. Another fortunate voice to drag her from out of her head. “Okay, I—let me drop her at the hospital.” The noise of Pat’s thumb fumbling to hit the _end call_ button fills the room for a moment before the line finally goes dead.

It takes all of about four seconds of silence before it hits the fan.

“ _FUCK_ ,” Rick shouts, throwing his arms up and then tugging his fingers through his hair. “Fucking fuck, I’ll kill that bitch I swear to _christ_ —”

“Rick, stop!” Beth tries to interrupt, but it’s clear that she’s rattled by the weight of what’s about to happen, what they’re about to do—continue lying to Courtney’s mom and get their veteran team member in a car crash to protect their identities. Her voice falters as she pleads and Yolanda can’t help it, she reaches out to rest a comforting hand on her arm because she knows exactly how heavy that weight is right about now.

And, well, Hourman himself is about to blow a gasket lifting it.

“What the _hell_ are we doing just—just _standing_ here?!” He continues, fist slamming down onto the workbench in front of them and sending the tools clattering across the floor. “Cindy Berman sent Courtney to the _Emergency Room_ tonight. She tried to _kill_ her.” It isn’t hard to see how fast he’s spiraling, how he’s clawing desperately to protect the people he cares for. Yolanda flinches at his rage but she understands it, _feels_ it pulsing beneath her skin. What _are_ they doing? God knows Yolanda has to do something, _anything_ to get this fire out of her.

“So what should we do?” She asks, stepping forward, into Rick’s space again to remind him that he’s not the only one that’s furious.

“We break Cindy Berman’s door down, and we take the bitch out.” Admittedly, not the best plan, but Yolanda thinks she can live with it—

“No!” Beth protests, echoing Yolanda’s movements so now _she_ has stepped into Rick’s anger as well. “Cindy has _powers_.” Okay, Beth is right about that. As if she didn’t have the entire school at her beck-and-call to begin with, the whole _she’s actually got superpowers like we do_ thing is definitely a wrench in Rick’s gameplan.

“So do we,” he counters, but the intensity has waned a little bit. Yolanda can see that he knows Beth is right, even if he hasn’t fully come around to it.

“Cindy Berman having powers means that her _dad_ , or her _mom_ , could be part of the Injustice Society—”

“Great. Let’s hope so,” Rick interrupts, anger quieter but more forceful as he pushes forward past the two of them back to the workbench. He grabs his hourglass and grips it tight for a moment before turning back, looking frighteningly ready for a fight to the death. He’s so upset he’s gone practically still for a split second—it would be easy to comment on how peaceful his face looks when it’s not showing off a snarl to the world. It would be easy to think he’s handsome like this, unmarred by his deeply buried anger.

It would be easy, but it would be wrong. He starts walking again, purposeful strides that would take him out of Pat’s shop in not even a minute, but Beth steps into his path and holds her hand out for a moment, fingers brushing Rick’s chest for a second before she drops her arm.

“Hey. We have no idea what we would be walking into or who we would be up against. There’s a smarter approach to this—”

“An eye for an eye is how this _works_ ,” Rick snaps, trying to push past her again. But Beth gets in his way _again_. Yolanda bites her lip to keep from smiling at the perseverance radiating off her friend. She’s right to stop him—Courtney helped her refocus this kind of anger once before, and it looks like Beth is about to re-create the magic.

“ _Listen_ , Rick!” Beth’s words are forceful and he stops again, stilling once more. Yolanda watches along in quiet awe at this shift in dynamic, in the way Beth has just completely taken the position of power from him in a moment. “I’m mad too—but you just need to _sit down_ and _cool off_.”

“Or _what_?!” The stillness disappears. “What are you gonna do, huh? Stare at me?”

There’s deafening silence, and Yolanda thinks she’s going to have to shove him for being so selfish with his words for a long moment before Beth speaks up again.

“You hurt so much, you wanna hurt everyone else. Is that it, Rick?” And there it is—the final blow. Ted Grant couldn’t have delivered it better. The silence that follows her is cut short by Rick’s last flare of rage as he turns around to slam his fists against the bench once more. Yolanda jumps, but she’s not as afraid anymore—she knows exactly what this is like. Beth is right about him. And that means she’s right about _her_. She’s right about everything. “I care about Courtney. About _both_ of you! About _everyone_ in Blue Valley. But we should be trying to figure out who Cindy’s parents are _before_ we act.” Ever the levelheaded one of the group, always thinking things through, Beth’s words fill the air and smother the last of the fire. Yolanda watches as Rick turns around slowly, the prickly anger he’d been wearing as armor falling away piece by piece. _Like magic_.

“I think Beth’s right, Rick,” Yolanda murmurs, stepping closer to where Beth is standing. “We can’t rush into this or we’ll put Courtney in more danger.” Because that’s where this all started; the fear of losing Courtney Whitmore, new girl from California, aggressive optimist, part time stalker. Their Stargirl.

Rick’s shoulders sag. “Okay,” he finally says, moving back towards them. “Okay, alright. Then what do we do.” It’s not a question, really—more resigned, a little defeated. Yolanda wishes Courtney were here to say something bubbly and hotheaded, if only because she knows it would make everyone smile. Instead, she leans over to bump her shoulder against Rick’s arm for a moment, another quiet show of support, and then turns her full attention to Beth, who’s already detailing the plan.


End file.
